Education Outreach for the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE continued in September and October, 2011 at the U.S.Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon held in the National Mall's West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. Nineteen collegiate teams from around the world competed to determine which group had created the most efficient solar powered home. Competition categories included Architecture, Energy Balance, Affordability, Engineering, and Market Appeal.

Though quite a few of the competition days were solar-challenged, the demonstration homes performed well, and visitors lined up for a chance to inspect the innovative design and construction inside and out.

The Under The Hood - Drive Change Today activity cart was very popular with the energy-efficiency-minded Solar Decathlon visitors. The activities in the cart are designed to provide a hands-on introduction to principles of energy use, by-products of energy consumption, and conservation.

...while yeast and water take longer to work together to create the same effect.

The aerodynamic properties of cars of different shapes and sizes were compared on test tracks. With hair dryers creating wind resistance, it was clear that boxy designs and luggage racks can drastically reduce energy efficiency.

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﻿A favorite activity was the battery circuit station, where the challenge was to complete an energy circuit utilizing a battery, wires and tape, in order to light a small bulb. The more batteries, the brighter the light, until the tiny lights blow from the energy supplied by about 6 to 7 D batteries.

The principles how of interlocking gears work to control speed and direction of movement were explored by many visitors to the booth as well.

At the NC Museum of Life and Science in Durham, a week of Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE education events and activities were held in the museum's hands-on investigation lab space.

Museum visitors learned that under-inflated tires and dirty air filters are two enemies of energy efficiency.

Visitors used a high-magnification camera and display screen to compare clean and dirty filters and learned how a dirty air filter slows the intake of air needed for efficient burning of fuel.

The challenge of designing and constructing paper luggage racks and testing their effect on a car's aerodynamics was also a popular activity using the museum's high tech spring loaded tester track.

The first week of Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE finals brought the competitive field from 15 vehicles at the start of the week to 11 vehicles by the end of the day on Friday 7/23. After a weekend away from the track, the remaining competitors have once again taken the track for the Dynamic Safety tests today. Teams demonstrated that they could meet requirements for 0 - 60mph acceleration, 60 - 0mph braking, and accident avoidance tests.

Two additional teams have been eliminated (preliminary) from the competition after today's events: Western Washington University and the Edison2 #95 car. The WWU Viking 45 vehicle did not pass the accident avoidance test within the 6 attempt limit (they did complete the course on attempt #9), and the Edison2 #95 car had mechanical troubles that prevented it from completing the day's tests.

This brings us to the exciting final day of the finals event. Nine vehicles remain: 2 Edison2 vehicles in the mainstream class, 2 X-Tracer vehicles in alternative tandem, and 5 competitors in the alternative side-by-side category (Aptera, Li-ion Motors, RaceAbout, Zap, and TW4XP). Teams will compete in a timed event called the "Combined Efficiency and Performance Test", in which they will travel a minimum of 100 miles for the alternative classes and 200 miles for the mainstream class. Teams may not exceed 70mph, but the total time to complete the course and MPGe will be important factors that will be considered when determining the winning vehicle for each class. Live telemetry and a webcast of the event will take place on Tuesday, 7/27, starting at 8am EDT. Please visit http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/live to tune in for the action, and watch for updates on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr!

One of the objectives of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is to provide visibility for the teams and their technologies. Over the past year, both the LOI Contenders and the competition have made a strong showing in the media.

The 2008 media relations campaign garnered significant media coverage. The vast majority of the stories have been positive and on message. From January 1 through December 31, 2008, the Prize received coverage on approximately 150 TV and radio stations across the globe, 100 national and international newspapers and 900 blogs and websites.

News of the competition was covered in 12 countries, including India, South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom and British Columbia, although 95% of the stories in 2008 on the competition were generated out of the U.S.

The 2008 coverage equated to approximately 212 million print impressions, 299 million broadcast impressions and 650 million web impressions, totaling more than one billion impressions for the 2008 calendar year. The equivalent ad value was over $7 Million.

Additionally, of the 1200+ stories that mentioned the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE in 2008, 88% of those stories were overwhelmingly positive and in support of the Prize.

A brief snippet of where we were featured in 2008:

TODAY Show (Viewership: 5,620,000)

CNBC Closing Bell (Viewership: 226,000 )

Fox & Friends. Fox News Channel (Viewership: 500,500)

Rolling Stone

Detroit Free Press (Circulation: 320,125)

Associated Press (reach: N/A

MSNBC.com (Visitors Per Month: 30,000,000)

Automotive News (Circulation 81,085)

Los Angeles Times (Circulation 1,055,076)

Consumer Reports (Circulation 4,000,000)

NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook

As the competition progresses, we will continue our outreach to the media. Over the next year and a half, we expect to achieve even higher levels of visibility for the competition and our teams as they showcase their vehicles on an international stage.

Reaching out to the public about the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is something that is always top of mind for us, and we are always on the lookout for new opportunities to bring the news about our competition to more people.

This year marked the 21st USA Today ad poll which ranks the popularity of all the Super Bowl commercials each year. What was once a newspaper poll that you checked out the day after the game is now a real-time experience with second by second responses from a panel of viewers. You can log onto a ton of websites to watch the commercials again and again- creating no-cost opportunities for those advertisers to continue to reach consumers long after the game is over.

Today, every aspect of the Super Bowl viewing experience is in real time across multiple screens. I know a few people who still just sit on their couch and watch a game with nothing more than the remote in their hand but I am no longer one of them. I found myself last night following a Facebook thread started by a friend in the media business asking if anyone had any favorite ads so far. Opinions were posted at a furious pace. I got a text message from another sports insider remarking that perhaps NBC wasn’t going to be too thrilled by the fact that The Boss said he was going to Disneyland- a competitor to the NBC-owned Universal Theme Parks. Another friend’s Twitter feed was a hilarious critique of the not-so-subtle marketing messages hitting us over the head all day- Intel sponsored 3D glasses anyone?

This hyper-connected, always-on media world presents many challenges even if you have the multi-tasking skills of a 12 year old - but it also provides constant opportunity. Opportunity to reach and connect with people that are interested in your product, brand or content. That is why we at the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE are using all of these new tools to get the word out about this exciting competition thru these blogs and all of the social networks at our disposal.